


Over and Over, Until We Get it Right

by Tired_And_Uninspired



Category: Saw (Movies)
Genre: Adam dies a few times but thats what the time loop is for, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Time Loop, Time Travel Fix-It, will add tags as they apply
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27785182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tired_And_Uninspired/pseuds/Tired_And_Uninspired
Summary: Adam wakes up. Adam gets kidnapped. Adam dies.And then he wakes up again.
Relationships: Adam Faulkner-Stanheight/Lawrence Gordon
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Over and Over, Until We Get it Right

Adam wakes up, gasping for breath.

_That was one hell of a nightmare_ , he thinks. He had been suffocated-- the plastic covering his face not tight enough to stop the blood flowing from his nose, but enough to kill him eventually. He wonders if that’s what it feels like to _actually_ die.

Not that it matters, he has a job to do. Nightmare or not-- and how odd this specific one included the man he was investigating-- Adam needs the money if he wants to make rent this month _and_ afford groceries. 

As the day progresses and Adam’s stalking continues, he begins to feel more and more concerned. Things are uncomfortably familiar. A man begs for money on the streetcorner, a little girl complains at her parents not letting her go to the Build-A-Bear they pass by.

Dr. Gordon doesn’t follow through with cheating on his wife. 

The similarities are enough that Adam has to _leave._ Go home. He’s sure he can manage this job after clearing his head a bit or, if not, take on a new one before his rent’s due.

_It’s a coincidence,_ he thinks. _Nothing else, nothing is happening. It was a dream_. 

Adam hesitates at the cat standing around his apartment, carefully does not pet it. Does not look. He hesitates again inside the door to his room. This had been where whoever it was had abducted him in his dream and--

_Dream_. 

He sounds like an idiot; sitting here, scared to go in his own room, over nothing.

The next thing he knows is darkness.

Once again, he wakes, gasping for air. He’s in water-- _bathtub_ \-- flailing his way out and onto the cold floor. 

_No_ , he begs. _Please, anything but this._

“Help!” Adam calls, tugging on the chain around his ankle. “Hey--”

“I already tried that.”

_Nonononononononononono--_

“Ca- can you turn on the light?” 

As he says this, they come on, One light at a time.

Oh.

_Oh._

At this point, Adam had been expecting it, but the confirmation-- 

_The key!_

He leaps back to the bathtub, leaning over the edge of it to stick his hand down the drain.

“ _Fuck._ Fuck, come on!” There’s no use, though. The key is long gone, too far for him to reach. 

“Are you alright?” Dr. Gordon-- _Lawrence_ \-- asks. He looks both wary and genuinely concerned. 

“Yeah,” Adam mumbles, head resting against the tub’s edge. “Just great.”

What else was there? The key was gone and Adam still isn’t sure he’s willing to chop his own foot off the way Lawrence had. 

Jigsaw? Adam peeks back at the man and sees he’s still just laying there. Not that Adam expected anything else, really. He sprawls out as far as he can, sticking his tongue out in focus, ignoring whatever it is Lawrence is saying to him. 

“ _Hey_ ,” he whispers. “I know you’re alive. Let me the hell out of here.”

No response. Adam picks up a piece of tile that had chipped off the wall and throws it. Still nothing.

“He’s _dead_ ,” Lawrence says. “You won’t get anything from him.”

Adam shrugs in response, sitting himself down to think. He’s still vaguely in shock, he’ll admit, but he can feel the _anger-hurt-betrayal_ lingering just underneath. Lawrence hadn’t come back. Lawrence had _promised_. Adam had been slowly dying-- dehydration, starvation, what have you-- and then been suffocated by-- what was her name? He had met her earlier, took her picture-- some girl. 

And Lawrence hadn’t come back.

He manages to tune back in after who-knows-how-long of Lawrence trying to get his attention. “You’re closer, you might be able to get it.”

_Oh, the tapes_. Adam hadn’t even thought about those.

Things run about the same as they had in Adam’s dream-- the tapes, the calls, pretending to be poisoned, all the arguments. 

Lawrence still saws his foot off.

“I’ll come back,” he promises, forehead pressed to Adam’s, “I’ll bring help.”

Adam can barely bring himself to let go, let Lawrence leave again. “We’re gonna be okay?” 

_No_.

“I wouldn’t lie to you.”

He sobs when Lawrence finally leaves his sight, watches as Jigsaw gets up to tell him it’s over.

“There’s a key in the bathtub,” he says.

Adam doesn’t get up to look, knows it isn’t there.

As the door slams shut and the lights turn off, one by one, Adam knows, somehow, that this isn’t the end.

_I’ll do better next time_ , he swears. _We’ll both get out._

  
 _Together_.

**Author's Note:**

> characterization has. never been my strong suit really so if theyre off im sorry and if you think theyre fine then im glad i could make somebody happy lmao
> 
> i dont have a set update schedule for this bc any time ive done that before i end up burnt out before its finished and the end always turns out. Rushed.
> 
> hope yall can have some fun with my self-indulgent bs for now, see you soon


End file.
